


Maybe I've Been Watching You Too

by ivnwrites



Category: The Knick (TV)
Genre: Drunken Kissing, First Kiss, M/M, bertie's giant crush on thack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:01:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23695855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivnwrites/pseuds/ivnwrites
Summary: “Bertie, since your first day here you’ve been staring at me like a puppy when you think I can’t see. It’s adorable, but I’ve been wondering if you’ll ever do anything about it.”
Relationships: Bertram "Bertie" Chickering Jr./John Thackery
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Maybe I've Been Watching You Too

“Bertie!”

The man in question nearly jumped out of his chair when the door slammed open. He’d retreated to his office to escape the commotion of the holiday party downstairs, but evidently wasn’t going to be completely spared. “Thack, sorry, do you need me for anything?” He’d begun to reach for his jacket where it was draped over the back of his chair, but stopped when his concern was waved off.

“No, not at all.” Thackery crossed the office in a few long strides, clearly drunk enough that it had started to affect his mobility. It wasn’t enough to be a real inconvenience, but his hip banged loudly against the desk as he perched on the corner to look at Bertie. “Mostly just wondering where you were.”

“I guess it was just too crowded for me down there.” Even on the second floor he could still faintly hear voices from the lobby now that the door had swung open. The surgical wing was all but empty of staff save Bertie and the night duty nurse, the other offices locked and bolted. It had been the respite he’d needed after spending the past hour glad handing with random donors and city officials whose names he wouldn’t be able to recall if his life depended on it.

“Fair enough. Would you like me to kiss you?”

Bertie blinked as the sudden change of topic almost gave him whiplash. “I’m sorry?”

“Bertie, since your first day here you’ve been staring at me like a puppy when you think I can’t see. It’s adorable, but I’ve been wondering if you’ll ever do anything about it.” Thackery tilted his head with a shrug when his remark was met with silence. “Edwards has gotten it a few times too recently, but never Gallinger.”

“I respect Gallinger as a surgeon, but he can be an ass sometimes.” The response was almost automatic as Bertie tried to latch on to an easier question.

Apparently that was the right answer, because Thackery threw his head back and laughed loud enough for it to echo down the empty hallway. “That’s a fine assessment of him.” The grin stayed on his face even after his laughter died down and he returned to gazing expectantly at Bertie. “You still haven’t answered my question, though.”

“You’re sure you won’t wake up and regret this tomorrow?”

Thackery chuckled. “Bertie, I’m drunk enough right now that I’ll probably regret ever having been born tomorrow. This won’t be anywhere near my mind.” He reached out and cupped a hand around Bertie’s jaw as the other came to rest on his shoulder. His voice had been low before, but now it dropped to just above a whisper. “You can say no. It won’t change anything between us, I promise.” 

“Then yes.”

Bertie gasped when lips covered his own without warning and he found himself being pressed back into his chair. To his credit, Bertie did try initially to give as good as he got, but the combination of surprise and height disadvantage meant that he soon gave up. He let his eyes fall closed and brought a hand up to wrap around Thackery’s wrist, more holding on for dear life than trying to take any sort of control.

They separated and Bertie blinked down at Thackery’s coat buttons for a few moments to get his bearings, drawing in large gulps of air one after the other. His entire body felt jittery and frozen at the same time, the same way it had when he’d shocked himself trying to repair a frayed wire. He wasn’t quite sure what he’d imagined kissing Thackery would be like, or if he had really tried to imagine it at all. A strange mixture of thrill and disbelief was circling through his brain in a dense fog that he couldn’t quite shake until a voice broke into his thoughts.

“Are you still with me?”

“Yes! Sorry.” His gaze snapped back up to see Thackery’s amused grin. 

“If I’d known you’d react like that, I would have done this sooner.”

Bertie’s expression darkened. “Please don’t make fun of me.” 

A half smile spread across Thackery’s face as he leant down again. “I’m not.” He raised his eyebrows in the way that meant he was being earnest and pulled Bertie into another kiss. This one was gentler than the first, less desperate, and Bertie was actually able to reciprocate, placing a hand on Thackery’s waist to pull himself up straighter. Thackery tasted like whiskey and the omnipresent sting of disinfectant that seemed to permeate everything in the surgical wing. More than anything though, he felt solid, steady in contrast to Bertie’s still racing heartbeat.

This time Thackery only tilted his head rather than pulling away entirely, leaving their foreheads still pressed together. It left them still cocooned in the moment before, breaths ghosting over each other’s lips. At some point, Thackery had begun to run his thumb back and forth over Bertie’s cheekbone, and the younger man found himself leaning into the touch with a sigh, lulled by the steady rhythm.

“I can make some excuses if you want to go home, say there was some minor emergency that I sent you to deal with.” His eyes slid to the still open door and the light spilling down the hall from the stairway. From the sound of it, the party would last for at least a few more hours before the guests began to leave. “You can go through the basement and I doubt anyone will notice.” 

Thackery wasn’t wrong. No one had come looking for Bertie when he disappeared over half an hour ago, but he’d still been reluctant to leave entirely. Having someone to cover for him though, that was an entirely different matter. “I’d appreciate it.”

Even with their agreement, it took a few minutes for them to actually break apart, longer still for Bertie to rise from his chair. Thackery’s position on the desk meant that for once Bertie was looking down at him rather than the other way around. He couldn’t help but grin at the novelty as Thackery wrapped an arm around his waist. “You have to let me go if I’m going to leave.” In truth, he disliked the prospect of leaving now, not wanting to break the intimate contact for longer than needed for him to breathe.

“I don’t really want to.” The answer was given with a look of mock seriousness before Thackery slid off the desk and began to propel them both toward the door. “But tomorrow will inevitably be hell, so go home, get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning.”


End file.
